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The history of the United States has been one of many prejudice and racist ideologies that have led to the marginalization and oppression of various minority groups in American society. The ideology of white supremacy has led to discriminatory legislation and allowed racist sentiments to permeate the social institutions aimed to serve the citizens of this country. Minorities in general and African Americans in particular, have historically been the primary targets of the discrimination in this society exercised not only by governmental institutions in this country, but also by the majority of the white population in this country. With the end of the Jim Crow era, proponents of white supremacy were now faced with a new dilemma, how to continue the oppression of African Americans in this country in a “post-racial” society.
American society began to be seen as a “color-blind” environment, which made the discrimination of individuals based on race non-permissible. Discrimination now had taken a new form, instead of discriminating against African Americans based on race; supporters of white supremacy now criminalized and labeled them as criminals. Michelle Alexander in her book The New Jim Crow, explains how this new form of discrimination continued the same oppression towards African Americans that was exercised in the Jim Crow era and was now “justified” by discriminating them on the basis of criminal behavior. Through the creation of this new system of criminalization, Michelle Alexander explains how the stigma and discriminatory legislation that followed which she terms as the “cruel hand” perpetuated the marginalization of African American individuals and inhibited their social and economic progress. As long as there are proponents of white supremacy and as long as racist sentiments continue to permeate social institutions in this country, we will continue to see

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